Day 26: "Let's see how far we've come."

February 4th: Nine days left!

I wasn't sure what quote to use today for the title and then, like a voice from on-high, my Pandora.com station started playing "How Far We've Come" by Matchbox 20.

Well -- how far have we come?

The original email I sent to Akili Academy said I was hoping to raise two or three hundred dollars. $200?? We're now at $2580 and pursuing a goal of $3000.

This has not come from "one big donation." Rather it has come from 93 individual contributors with no one giving more than $100! This will be an interesting calculation that I'll do sometime soon, but it looks like the average contribution is somewhere in the range of $20.

As for the running -- I have my 20-mile run tomorrow morning! That's a far cry from the five-miler I did when I started 26 days ago. I can't really do many pushups than when I started, but -- if I tense up real tight -- I think I can see an ab. :-)

And, then -- on a personal level -- with your help, I was able to take anxiety I was feeling about my Dad, coming out of my first holiday season without him, and turn it into something that can be a positive for something I really care about -- inner-city education -- and a school I really believe in.

The last 26 days have been a really great adventure and I'm very much looking forward to the final nine! Thanks so much for your part in helping me create a memory that will be with me for the rest of my life.

How far we've come. But we've still got a little further yet to go!